How do I enter dividends I take from the company

[1246]

[quote]

Hello bojopr,

You would create an equity account in your Chart of Accounts called Dividends Paid. Every time you allocate the transaction you would choose this account. This would also be an Out of Scope tax item as th default tax setting.

Let me know if you need step by step instructions to set up the account.

[/quote]

can I have instructions?

[Anonymous]

Hi bojopr,

Go to Accounting -> Chart of Accounts -> New (button).

• Account type is Equity
• Detail Type can be either Partner Distributions or Owner's Draw.
• Name can be changed to what you'd like it to be, example: Dividends.
• Default Tax Code: Out of Scope
• Save

I hope this helps!

[DD749]

I can't find Equity Account in Chart of Accounts. Can you help me set this up?

Regards

Daniel 

[Ike]

I would appreciate step by step instructions. I have got into the Account type- Equity then Detail Type - Owner's Equity - Description - yearly dividends NOW should this be a sub-account of something???

Also I failed to do this for 2018 so should I just put the total of 2018 & 2019 in the Balance area?

[Diane18]

I'm reading through this thread because I wanted to make sure that our QB Desktop was set up properly in 2013.  After reading through here, I found out that the Dividends Payable account was set up as an Other Liability - not an Equity account.  That explains why every time I get the adjusting entries back from the accountant, there's an entry moving the dividends to Retained Earnings which is an Equity account.  Is it possible to change the Dividends Payable account from an Other Liability and make it an Equity account?  Or will that screw up all those years of entries?  How can I correct this going forward or should I just leave it as is?

[LauraAB]

Hello Diane18,

Happy Wednesday! I hope things have gone well for you so far this week, and I'm glad this thread has helped clarify why your accountant has been making the changes they have in your books. I can appreciate now wanting to change the type of account your dividends are allocated to so that your accountant doesn't need to make these kinds of corrections, and I can help shed some light on this.

I've just done some testing and see that from a QuickBooks Desktop perspective, you can change the type of account from an other liability account to an equity account, even if you already have transactions in it. For the transactions, everything should still be the same since you're simply changing the type of account.

Before you do that, though, I strongly recommend speaking with your accountant since they've already been reallocating funds to another equity account. It may be best to even simply begin using the equity account your accountant has set up or been using moving forward, but they'll be able to best advise you so that you avoid any negative impacts to your books. Having that discussion is key in this case, so don't hesitate to reach out to them to go over this.

I hope this helps! Have a great rest of your day.

[elisheva]

I am having the same issue. I have called QuickBooks customer care and couldn't get a clear answer either.

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